Ocean in Sight . . . I Think

Wednesday, September 20. Rainier, OR to Astoria, OR

We made it to the Oregon Coast in true Lewis & Clark style--in the rain.

The skies were misting while we had breakfast, but it seemed as though we would have dry weather when we started out from Rainier this morning. It was a little cold--thank goodness for the 1.5-mile, 600 ft. climb out of Rainier. By the time we got to the viewpoint near the top I was sweating under my layers, and stopped to take off my gloves and rain jacket. Big mistake. As soon as we started the descent, I wanted my gloves back on again. Not to worry--the descent was more of a false flat and we had another hill to climb.

Now that my body temperature had equalized, I was able to enjoy the ride through Alston, Clatskanie (pronounced clat-scan-EYE) and on into Westport, where we planned to stop for lunch. We were still riding on Hwy 30, which has a decent shoulder, but it also has a fair amount of traffic. Each time we passed a "Passing Lane Ahead" sign, we knew we were in for a climb.

As we pulled into Westport we came upon the Oregon Berry Patch, which looked like a nice lunch spot. Turns out that it's much more than that. 30-some years ago, a local man started making berry jams as Christmas gifts, and when demand outstripped production, he and a partner opened the Berry Patch. You can purchase jams, jellies, catsup, mustard and syrups made from huckleberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, choke-cherries and Oregon's own Marionberries. As we sat inside having lunch, the rain started. It would continue for the rest of the day.

Our waitress warned us of a "big hill" outside of town, but we assured her we'd already done the big hill out of Rainier. "This one is just soooo looong" she said, using her face and hands to make the point for us. As we left Westport, (now toting a bottle of blackberry syrup), we did encounter that hill. She wasn't kidding. While the slope of the hill wasn't steep, it was verrrry, verrry long. And now it was raining in earnest. The rain was cold, and when the big drops hit my face, it stung.

We rolled along through the countryside, getting closer and closer to the ocean. The route bent away from the Columbia, and took us past fish hatcheries, logging operations, and a National Forest. It occurred to me that this is just what we saw at the beginning of our trip in South Carolina. Back then, in late April, the summer was just beginning and temps were in the 90's. We wouldn't see rain for a few more weeks. Today, though, the rain didn't bother us. We had jackets and helmet covers that actually repel water, for one thing. But maybe the fact that we are so close to the end made a difference in our demeanor. Or maybe the last 140 days on the road has helped us know that we'd make it to the day's end. The weather is what it is. We were both singing Astoria riding songs in our heads as we rolled along, up one hill after another.

We stopped at John Day Park for a bio-break, and Matthew was able to squeeze water out of his gloves just by making a fist. (Note to self: investigate water-proof gloves for life in the Pacific Northwest) No point in hanging around--we weren't getting any drier.

As we got nearer to Astoria, the road came back parallel to the Columbia River. At one break in the trees, Matthew called out that the ocean was just beyond the river, but the river's edge melted into the grayness of the sky, and the ocean view was obscured by the day's rain.

Just when I had stopped counting miles, minutes and hills, we rounded a corner and entered Astoria. It seemed that the rain intensified and the wind gusts increased just as we arrived. At the "Welcome to Astoria" sign we stopped for our souvenir picture, then continued on through town to our hotel, battling 30+ mile-per-hour winds for the last few miles. We'd made it!

After a celebratory (and complimentary) cookie and glass of OJ in the hotel lobby, we sloshed upstairs to our room and took long, hot showers, then put on warm, dry layers. Now feeling clean and cozy, we hung around the hotel waiting for a break in the weather to allow us to dash out for dinner. We finally called a taxi for the trip into town and had dinner at the Golden Luck restaurant. The weather finally did break during dinner, so we could walk back to the hotel. The winds were still pretty strong, but the cool night air and the short walk felt good.

We'll stay an extra day in Astoria to be able to visit some of the Discovery Corps historic sites such as Fort Clatsop. The Corps spent 116 days in Astoria in 1805, and it rained 112 of those days. We're hoping the weather will clear up by Friday. The coast route can be very hilly, so we plan to take 4 days to cover the distance between Astoria and Lincoln City. I'm even hoping that we'll have a tail wind for one day while we're riding down the coast. It could happen.